The truth about the Torture Gang

CHARLIE RICHARDSON branded some of the worst allegations against him "a lurid fairy story". Quite how exaggerated they were is a debated point but the gruesome tales of gangland torture that put Richardson in prison for 17 years and cemented his reputation as the most terrifying gangster of the Sixties are certainly lurid.

Charlie Richardson, left, who died this week, was one of Britain's most sadistic gangsters []

Charlie, who has just died aged 78, was the head of the group dubbed the Torture Gang, a vicious criminal syndicate more feared than rivals the Kray twins.

The gang also included his brother Eddie and the notorious "Mad" Frankie Fraser, who once killed and dismembered a fellow gangster with an axe.

Their "manor" stretched from South London scrap yards and West End clubs to mining interests in South Africa and their empire was said to have embraced fraud, gambling and protection rackets.

But it was the grisly tales of torture that spread their infamy further than the criminal underworld. "You didn't mess about with them," says one of their former associates, "or you'd come away a cripple."

The trial that made them infamous took place after Charlie Richardson was arrested at dawn on the day of the World Cup Final on July 30, 1966.

The gang's trademark, it was said, was to pin their victims to the floor using six-inch nails and remove their fingers and toes with bolt cutters.

It became known as the Torture Trial because of the horrific stories the Old Bailey was told of the gang's punishment methods meted out to anyone who crossed them.

One of the chief informers was ex-gang member Johnny Bradbury, who had been sentenced to death for the murder of one of Richardson's associates, allegedly on Richardson's orders.

Other witnesses, men who had fallen out with the brothers, had to be put under police protection, as were jury members, as the brutal details emerged.

The gang's trademark, it was said, was to pin their victims to the floor using six-inch nails and remove their fingers and toes with bolt cutters.

Mock trials with Eddie prosecuting and Charlie "judging" would take place at their scrap yard in Camberwell, South London, and the victims would be subject to punishments which could include whippings, cigarette burning and teeth being pulled out by Mad Frankie.

Fraser, who has twice been certified insane, acquired the nickname The Dentist as a result and would habitually carry a pair of gold-plated pliers.

TALES were told of how Richardson's henchmen would torture their enemies by attaching electric cables to their private parts and then cranking up a hand-operated generator to deliver electric shocks, first placing their victims in cold baths to make the shocks stronger.

Apparently, while all these horrors were being implemented, Charlie would nonchalantly send out for fish and chips when he got peckish.

At the end of the vicious sessions victims were said to be made to clean up their own blood and Richardson, in a final touch, would give them a clean shirt to return home in, causing the chilling torture sessions to become known as "taking a shirt from Charlie".

Richardson was found guilty of fraud, extortion, assault and grievous bodily harm, and was jailed for 25 years, serving 17. Eddie and Fraser were also sent to prison but Richardson maintained many of the torture stories were myths and had been exaggerated.

"If you can find anyone who says they got nailed to the floor by us or got their toes cut off I will give you £10,000 for each one," said the father of six.

That Richardson was "fitted up" was a line explored in the 2004 film Charlie, starring Luke Goss as the gangland boss, but the movie was criticised for shedding little light and for being "cliched and queasily celebratory".

While publicising his autobiography in 2005, Eddie actually admitted to getting pleasure out of inflicting pain. "If I'm perfectly honest, yes, I did," he told this paper.

"I won't say I loved hurting people. It was more about proving my manhood. It does make you feel powerful."

At the same time he compared his and his brother's temper, adding: "I was full of aggression and very quick to get into a fight but it was also over quickly. Charlie liked to stretch things out."

Last year, while hiring himself out as a £300 lunch date during which he would tell stories about the bad old times, Eddie also admitted that he wouldn't "want to meet myself now as I was then".

Born in the Thirties in South London, Charlie and Eddie were the sons of a prize fighter and a sweetshop owner and turned to crime after their father abandoned the family, leaving them penniless.

Both skipped National Service, Charlie by cutting up his uniform and pretending to be mad. The pair then proceeded to build their empire. It was partly legal, through scrap metal and foreign investments and partly illegal, through frauds, protection rackets and clubs.

While they lorded over South London, their main gang rivals were the Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie, in the East End. There was no love lost between the two gangs, with Eddie last year pronouncing the Krays "both brainless of Britain".

"You had the Krays and the Richardsons but I think the Richardsons were more violent than the Krays," former Detective Superintendent John Cummings has said. "The Rich-ardsons were frighteners, really vicious people."

There were violent clashes between the gangs, kicked off after a brawl at the Astor Club in December 1965 where gangster George Cornell, one of the Richardson gang, insulted Ronnie Kray, calling him a "fat poof".

Ronnie retaliated by shooting Cornell in the head at close range at the Blind Beggar pub (Cornell's last words were, "Well, look what the dog's brought in"). The Richardson gang then proceeded to take out a Kray associate, "Dickie" Hart, at Mr Smith's club in Catford, South London.

The law eventually caught up with the Richardsons and even though Charlie escaped from an open prison in 1980, he was caught after almost a year on the run in France.

He was officially released in 1984 and later became a campaigner for young offenders.

His death this week from peritonitis was confirmed by brother Eddie, who has spent a third of his life behind bars. "I can't say he was a good father but he was a father," he said. "He leaves a big family behind him."

Reformed bank robber Bobby Cummines, awarded an OBE for his services to reforming offenders, said of Charlie: "Whatever anyone says, he paid for his crimes."